The Importance Of An Amendment To The Constitution

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What is an amendment to the Constitution? It is an improvement, a correction to the original Constitution that was approved in 1788. Article V of the Constitution shows that an Amendment becomes a part of the Constitution in two ways, but one has actually been used. All 27 Amendments have been ratified after two-thirds of the House and Senate approve of the proposal and send it to the states for a vote. Then, three-fourths of the states must affirm the proposed Amendment. The other method of passing an amendment requires a Constitutional Convention to be called by two-thirds of the legislatures of the States. That Convention can propose as many amendments as it deems necessary. Those amendments must be approved by three-fourths of the states (Britannica.com 2009).…show more content…
They did not want to be under a dictatorship type of power as they were before. A lot of the states were afraid the government could become too powerful therefore the Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791. One issue in the original Constitution was slavery. It was not mentioned initially in the Constitution, but the freed slaves had a right to vote, but still wasn’t allowed to. Therefore an amendment was needed so they could participate in this right. Citizens assumed they would be protected by their own states’ constitution, so it was not until the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, therefore, Americans were not impacted by the Bill of Rights. The federal government grew in purpose, size and significance as a result. Because of this, debates began with the Bill of Rights which still leaves some questions to this very
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